August 2008 Archives

Of interest to our readers is the following from Northwestern University: True properties of carbon nanotubes measured

"Carbon nanotubes' atomic structure should, in theory, give them mechanical and electrical properties far superior to most common materials. Unfortunately, theory and experiments have failed to converge on the true mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes. Northwestern University researchers recently made the first experimental measurements of the mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes that directly correspond to the theoretical predictions. They used a nanoscale material testing system based on MEMS technology."

As many of you know I've been working on a new updated version of the Space Elevator Reference which I hope to launch this month. Today I'll provide a teaser screenshot of the developing home page of the new site.

The new site will provide the following services:

1. Collaborative Space Elevator Open Wiki
- Including Reference Documents and Research Papers
2. Collaborative Space Elevator Developer Wiki
3. Calendar of Events
4. Space Elevator Blogs and latest entries
5. Organizations Working on the Space Elevator
6. Image Galleries
7. Video Galleries

Since the new site is based on the Mindtouch DekiWiki platform it provides a great set of mashup tools and DekiScript scripting language allowing me to incorporate data from many sources. Some of the services provided may be done in collaboration with other sites and I am open to more partnerships.

I was very encouraged to learn that there seems to be some momentum building from the recent 4th Space Elevator Conference.

An impressive group of individuals representing a variety of interests appear ready to come together to create an organization to serve as a coalescing force for those interested in working on the scientific, engineering, economic and policy challenges inherent in constructing the solar system's first space elevator.

While individuals may be pursuing their specific interest in the space elevator, this potential new organization will put forward a united force to disseminate information that is both factual and timely. What's more, by organizing the various challenges ahead this organization will be providing an roadmap of what is being worked on, by whom, what needs to be done etc.

Foreign interest in the space elevator is also growing as was demonstrated at the conference with the strong presence of the Japanese primarily represented by the Japanese Space Elevator Association (JSEA). And in fact JSEA will be holding it's first conference on November 16th and 17th.

Interest in Europe is ongoing with with the 2nd European Space Elevator & CNT Tether Design Conference being held in Luxembourg on December 6th and 7th.

With a new organization in the works several social networking tools will be used to help the organization. There is now a Space Elevator Architect LinkedIn group created, a Twitter channel and I've created a new Facebook group for the organization. This new group, temporarily called the International Space Elevator Facebook group will evolve as the organization is formed and grows. For now I invite you to join this new group.